Notes on the Geography of Northern India: Varanasi Dussehra

The last few days of the ten-day Durgapuja are huge in Varanasi. Dramatic billboards are posted, and temporary theaters erected--marvels of trompe l'oeil. In the evening of the last day, the flamboyant statues of Durga and other divinities are paraded to the river, where they are set afloat and discarded.